There is more than just Spanish being taught in our classes.

Our day is broken into four sections. The first part of my day consists of Spanish babbling. The class is Fonetica and the focus is on the vocalization of letters, words, and sentences. If you have ever heard someone speak Spanish, you should have noticed they do so very quickly, and that their mouth seems to barely move when they are rapidly moving from word to word and syllable to syllable. There is a reason for this, some words are combined due to the first or last letter in opposing words. While I finish my cup of coffee (and usually pour another one in class), I repeat the teacher in a group, and then we do it individually. No one in our group is from the Deep South or Texas so everyone does pretty well. The class isn’t as important for me but it is a good way to wake my mind up to Spanish plus the coffee is good!

The second class is all speaking. This class is great because I really learn by doing. In order for me to connect the grammar rules, I need to speak them in a sentence. Since there are only four of us, I get many opportunities to speak. Today in class, we were given card with verbs written on them and told to use them to ask a question to another student. Well my brain works different. It works much different. I looked at my verbs and immediately had two questions I wanted to ask but knew I couldn’t lead with them. I saved them for the end and tried to play nice. My last two questions were, “Why do you show your children your muscles?” My verb was mostrar meaning “to show” and it was all I could think of at the time. It was followed with several muscle poses by the teacher and students, we are all guys. It was perfect with several of us doing our best Arnold impersonation. It was great. The last question I had to use cortar meaning “to cut.” So I asked, “Quien corta el queso?” which means, “Who cut the cheese?” All the students laughed. The teacher started talking about the white cheese popular here in Costa Rica.  We explained that it was a phrase used in English with two meanings, a literal one and then it was used to talk about farting. He loved it. We followed this by several people making farting noises and using the question in English and Spanish. It was great to teach him something! Plus who doesn’t like doing a muscle pose and making fart noises in class? Well most women probably (hopefully) don’t but us guys, we always enjoy a good muscle pose and any noise that sounds like someone passing gas.

After a break, I go to Grammatica. Tuesdays and Thursdays there is chapel so break is filled with English worship and a sermon but then it all gets real when we sit down to learn grammar. Grammar is a tough class. There is more instruction and less talking. Learning the rules is no problem for me but I struggle putting it together in a class with eleven people. There are some people in class that have full conversations in Spanish. I’m not there. I’m not even close. Even though the class is difficult, this is my favorite teacher. She is excellent. She is animated and uses different teaching methods to help every student. While she may teach me everything I know about Spanish grammar, this week I learned something more important than grammar.

I looked at her resume. She used to teach in the University. She is the most educated at the school and has great credentials. This week on Tuesday, the chapel service was a QandA with the teachers. Now to be honest, I had no idea what any of them said. I did notice that my teacher cried when she was asked a question and I noticed several other students moved by the teachers’ responses. After asking my teacher to tell us what the questions were I learned more of what was said. There was one question that asked them why they taught at the school. All four of them said they taught at the school because they knew missionaries were needed in Latin America. They view their job as a ministry. While they get paid for what they do, they do it because they love it and because it has Kingdom impact. My teacher took a pay cut and a less prestigious position because she can have greater Kingdom impact teaching missionaries how to communicate in Spanish. That lesson is better than any rule for a preposition!

Now what if you viewed your job that way? What if you viewed your job as a ministry? You probably aren’t teaching a second language to missionaries but what if you viewed your job as a missionary? What if you set out for work tomorrow looking to make an impact in the Kingdom? When you are approached about a new job or promotion ask yourself, will I have a greater opportunity to impact the Kingdom of God? Live your life in such a way that the Kingdom of God pushes back the darkness.

You Win Some You Lose Some

One of the challenges of living in another country is buying food. Some things are pretty easy to discern, apples are apples no matter where you live. They do have water apples here. They look like a shriveled read pear but alas Granny Smiths are Granny Smiths wherever you go and you use them to bake an apple pie. There are other uses for Granny Smith apples but none are as good as an apple pie. Rice looks like rice. Beans look like beans, their “musical nature” is also present in Latin America.

However, there are somethings that are not similar. Spices are new and have different names. There are some similarities but more differences. Product descriptions are all in Spanish which we are learning. The most difficult is meat. The cuts of meat are much different and the names of fish differ between Latin American countries. For instance, the name for a fish here in Costa Rica is small type of snapper whereas in Mexico it is an eel so using Google Translate is no help.

Then there are things without names. This comes when we go to the market. It is typically busy and very few signs. We ran into a bit of a problem when we tried out a new stand that was selling leafy items. Katie wanted a go at it so she ventured into the ladies stall. She was surrounded by leafy green edible plants and people. The sales lady talks fast so Katie did her best to understand. She returned with a couple of bags of green leafy things. We came home, soaked them, spun them (in a salad spinner to decrease the drying time), and stored them. While I was looking at the items, I asked Katie what she got. Well, what she thought she bought was not what she bought. She did successfully buy some spinach but failed on the arugula. We now have an immense amount of mint. I mean we have a lot of mint.

I’m not sure what will come of it. I can’t drink anymore mint tea and she’s not allowed to sneak anymore of it into a salad. There is nothing like brushing your teach as you eat a salad let me tell you! So we will chalk that one up to a loss.

Our motto grocery shopping is, “You win some you lose some.” While Katie’s story was more recent, the first week here I attempted to buy some sausage. I had just had some delicious chorizo. So I bought two different types. The first was a Costa Rican chorizo and the other came as a package in a long sausage link with red lining. The first night I cooked part of the big link and one of the Costa Rican chorizos. I was so excited to taste them, if they were anything like what I had earlier I had hit the jackpot. Well instead of hitting the jack pot, I swung and missed horribly. The Costa Rican chorizo was the worst sausage I had ever had in my life. It was slimy, bland, and bad all at the same time. It was worst sausage I had ever eaten until I took a bite of the other one. What was in the nice large link of sausage? Bologna. Yep, you’re every old day bologna. Now if you are a person who like bologna two things. First, I feel sorry for you. Food is so good and meat tastes so great there is no reason to put it in your mouth. Secondly, I bet if you eat it, you probably don’t eat a two inch thick piece of it. You probably mask it with mayonnaise, lettuce, cheese, mustard, bread, or some combination therein. It was a big letdown, far worse than drinking unsweet tea when you are expecting sweet tea. So we still have some mint in our refrigerator, we got rid of all that sausage.

While we do win some and lose some, you only do if you play the game or in our case, go to the market. But if this is all about nasty sausage and enormous amount of mint I have wasted your time. However, I think about us sharing the gospel. The motto is true, you will win some (to Christ) and lose some (they are already lost) but you can only win someone to Christ if you step out and share the gospel. As a comfort to you, remember sharing the gospel is not about your convincing someone. No one has ever been won to Christ because you came with polished arguments and defending the gospel like a seasoned pro. People come to Christ because God draws them to himself. How does he do this? Through your faithful obedience and by your stepping out in faith by sharing the gospel. Sharing the gospel is primarily your bragging on God and what he has done in Christ. The gospel is the good news. The good news is that no one is too lost to save, no sin is too great, and everyone is welcome. So get out there and share the gospel!

Stop and Hear the Parrots

Living in another country is full of challenges.

In Latin America, there is the challenge to remember toilet paper goes in the trash can not the toilet. That is really a thing here. The struggle to remember that is real! There is the challenge of a new schedule. Here the sun creeps over the mountains a little after 5am. In case you were wondering, that was not our normal time to wake up. It was definitely not Hannah’s normal time to wake up.

Here we are loaded up. Hannah is 30 pounds and our three backpacks are a little more than that in total weight. 

Even though there are many difficulties, there are great experiences too. In order to acclimate well, sometimes we just need to stop and smell the roses.

Take this morning for example, we are in the middle of rainy season which means the ants (hormigas) invade. A couple of days a week while I wait for hot water to boil for my coffee, I kill ants. It is me verses them. I’m not about peace treaties with them. I want them to die slowly so they can tell their friends. To be honest, they don’t bother me too much. I view it as a challenge to eradicate them. Since we have a fifteen minute walk to school, we put Hannah in a stroller (graciously given to us by a church before we left and life is easier with it). However, this morning, the ants found her stroller. Her stroller is like every other toddler’s stroller or car seat – absolutely disgusting. The ants found Hannah’s little buffet for them.

We were already running late so Katie put her baby carrier on and I loaded up with three back packs. We thought about catching a taxi to school but the traffic was pretty bad which meant we could walk about as fast as a taxi. Looking back, I’m so glad we walked. Because we were without a stroller, we entered into the school through a different gate which allowed us a new site and sound, parrots! As we approached the school, we were greeted with the screeches. Parrots aren’t exactly song birds!

Acclimating to a new culture is difficult but if you will live with the “glass is half full” mentality it gets easier. This was a good morning to stop, see, and hear the parrots. How glorious! 

So I’m learning español. People ask how it is going. To be honest, I do not know enough to tell you. In class, I do not understand enough to ask questions! There are some people in class that are having complete conversations and I am completely lost. I’m not without hope in the process. God has called me and he will equip me. This doesn’t mean I don’t need to study it just means he is with me when I am.

There are three ways to say give a demonstrative pronoun in Spanish. They are éste, ése, áquell. These are masculine forms. For you grammar types, there are also masculine plural (éstos, ésos, aquéllos), feminine/plural (ésta/s, ésa/s, áquella/s), there is also a neuter form (ésto, éso, áquello). Now that I have satisfied the grammar nerd in all of you and figured out how to do accents on letters, which was no small feat. Let me tell you why this is comforting to me.

In English we use, “this” or “that” as demonstrative pronouns. These words represent things that are in our hand (this) or things that are far away (that). In español, it is different. They add a different degree of distance. They use éste, ésta, and ésto for something at hand. They use ése, ésa, and ésto for something close but not in hand. They use áquell, áquella, and áquello for something far away.

So while studying this for class, I began to think about how there are some people close at hand. I can talk to them on a daily basis, get to know them, and share the love of Christ with them. There are others who are a little farther away. I may see them occasionally or I may speak to them on social media. There is yet another group of people, those who are far away. Those people, I will never meet. I will never get to know them. They are too far. Even though someone may be too far for me to reach, they are not beyond the reach of God. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. No one can hide from him.

It makes me think about the people Sentinelese people. They are uncontacted. They live on an island in the Bay of Bengal. When contact has been attempted they have shot arrows and killed anyone who comes close. For this reason, India has imposed a three mile buffer zone around the island. The Sentinelese people are too far for me but not for God. I’m praying that these far off people would be open to the Gospel and those who are far off would be brought near. 

Katie is finally home. She spent the last week in the hospital fighting a pretty serious dose of the Noro virus. We had people praying for us all over the globe. We both felt completely overwhelmed with the grace and peace that is only offered in Jesus. While spending a week in the hospital is bad, It is worse when it is in another country. When you don’t know the language, well it seems worse. The problem is only heightened when you have a twenty month old child that needs to be quarantined from her mother. Since Katie had two IVs, one in each wrist, she required my constant presence so I was unable to spend much time with Hannah throughout the week.

However, even though the situation sounds bad, I wanted to share with you how the Lord tenderly loved us through the ordeal. He is so faithful and loving. He did several things with perfect timing that reminded us of his care and provision.

Initially, we had planned on spending Saturday at La Paz waterfall and zoo. It is (I know from pictures of friends) a beautiful tropical zoo paradise about an hour and a half away from San Jose, CR. There were about forty students set to go on the excursion which the language school set up for us. We were so excited. I had the Go-Pro camera charged, bags packed, and we were set. After several weeks of seeing the city of San Jose both Katie and I felt we needed to see something pretty. Not that the city isn’t nice but it is the capital city. Everything changed about 3am. I woke up with severe stomach cramps and everything that went with it, I thought, La Paz may not happen. When I woke up two hours later throwing up, I thanked the Lord for bringing on the sickness an hour before we were set to leave for La Paz. I don’t have anything against the other students but I feel some things are best not shared!

Katie was so sweet and kind. She took missing La Paz like a trooper. She cared for me. She got Gatorade for me and even washed all the vegetables from the market. I laid in bed feeling horrible but cared for. At noon, Katie came in the room and said she wasn’t feeling the best. Two hours later, she was in full on sick mode. We asked our neighbors to watch Hannah and Katie and I laid in bed sick as dogs. At about 5pm, it was apparent Katie was not getting better.

The school has a doctor (Dr. Longworth) who keeps office hours at the school and at the best hospital in CR. His parents were missionaries here. He was born here but speaks perfect English. I spoke with him on the phone and he advised us to go to the ER. So we took our first solo taxi ride (first ride without someone speaking for us) and we drove to the ER. Dr. Longworth called ahead to the ER for us and within ten minutes Katie was seen, had blood drawn, and IV fluids had begun. She was still sick but in the right place.

The blood work came back and showed she had an infection and was dehydrated. After several hours, the ER doctor (who also spoke very good English) gave us his business card with his personal contact information on it, a host of medications, and set us on our way. When you go to check out of the hospital, they offer to fill your prescriptions at the pharmacy. Typically, the meds are a little bit more expensive but the convenience factor makes it completely worth it. While we were waiting for the scripts to get filled, the ER doctor called me back in and told me he called Dr. Longworth and that he wanted Katie admitted into the hospital. He said, “I do not know Dr. Longworth. My normal protocol for this type of sickness is to release you with these medicines.” So I was stuck deciding between two doctors opinions. After conferring with Katie, who still didn’t feel the best, I told him to admit her. If it were me, I would have probably gone home but since it was Katie I wanted to make sure she was ok.

We had to wait longer to get Katie to a room. We finally did around midnight. When we entered into the room, the nurses began checking her vitals. I asked one of them to take my temperature. I had a 100.5 degree fever. I didn’t feel good so I checked myself into the ER and had my blood drawn. While waiting for my results, I took a bag of IV fluids. My numbers came back showing I was fighting something but nothing to the same level of Katie. I was released with no medications. After a bag of fluids, I felt much better.

I got to Katie’s room about 2:30am. She had been throwing up or at least attempting to the entire time I was gone. I was so thankful for Dr. Longworth and giving us the wisdom to follow his advice over the other doctor.

It took a couple of days for Katie to feel better. We were hopeful she was going to be coming home on Tuesday. She was trying so hard to get released. The doctors gave her two goals: drink liquid and eat food. When she could do both and keep them down she would be able to go home. Well Monday night, she had an appetite. She ate some food and drank some Powerade. I went home preparing to come get her for discharge. She sent me a message early in the morning, she couldn’t keep anything down. On top of that, she had severe pain in her abdomen.

It was the grace of God for her to stay those extra days. During the extra days, the doctors found that fluid had formed around her bowel and in her lungs due to the severity of the sickness. They were also able to determine she had the Noro virus and not a bacterial infection as was initially expected. This discovery completely changed her medication. The medications and lack of antibiotic helped her be able to repair the damage done to her stomach and esophagus.

While we were there, the nurses were so kind. The doctors all seven of them were great. Dr. Longworth is known for being thorough. He made rounds at least one a day. He had another doctor come by twice a day, an infectious disease doctor, gastro doctor, surgeon, and a couple of doctors who ran tests. Here doctors run ultrasounds not techs. It is great because they give instant readings and diagnosis. Katie got several tests and each one was administered by a doctor with an attending nurse. Katie was in great care. I told her it was an all-inclusive stay. She was able to order anything she wanted, had people make her bed twice a day. Costa Ricans are very serious about showering in the morning and changing sheets. She had her sheets changed and turned down twice a day. Needless to say, she saw my statement as a joke. Oh they also serve a Hershey’s Kiss whenever you order a cup of coffee. I see the last point as a total positive thing for coffee shops in the US to adopt. 

While we were there, we had visitors from the school staff, a teacher, and plenty of students. We couldn’t have felt more loved by their visits. To top things off, some of the students have set meals up for us now that we are home.

Several of the hard things that happened to us. First, Katie got admitted to the hospital. But can you imagine if she wasn’t? What a mark of God’s kindness having her admitted! Second, Katie couldn’t keep food down on Monday. Keeping her several more days allowed the doctors to find out exactly what was wrong with her which kept her medicine count down. Now that she has been home and recovered, we could not be more pleased with her care. The last couple of days of her hospitalization allowed the doctors to do several different tests which completely changed the medication she was given. This medication change allowed her to return home and recover much quicker. So while we may not always know God’s plan or his timing, his plan is always good and he is always on time.